Rest In Peace to one of the funniest actors I’ve ever had the joy of working with. Sam Lloyd made me crack up and break character every single time we did a scene together. He could not have been a kinder man. I will forever cherish the time I had with you, Sammy. pic.twitter.com/wwyvGNbveG

I have to say, Some Good News with John Krasinski is a breath of fresh air in this time of quarantine and isolation. John picks up on good news stories from around the world and you’ll have to have a heart of stone not to laugh or cry or both watching them.

There’s the first episode but there are currently 2 more and all are worth watching.

Lanzarote

Last Friday they held an SGNProm live on Youtube but I missed it. It was scheduled for one o clock in the morning my time! Hopefully the next episode will have clips from it. Coincidentally I started watching The Office (US) last week. I watched a couple of episodes before but it didn’t stick. I think we’ll be making it a regular watch from now on though. 🙂

Conor Pass, Kerry.

I’ve worked from home for almost 15 years now. It’s not always easy, and the first week of the Covid-19 lockdown in Ireland made me realise how cut off I am from other people. I’m not an especially outgoing kind of person but this enforced stay-at-home order is even getting to me. Two to three times a year I travel somewhere to meet my team or the rest of the company but all company travel is cancelled now for the foreseeable future.

Easter celebrations, Malaga.

I and many others have the luxury and privilege to work from home while there are millions of people sitting idle or bored in their homes. I sit here at my screen but there are health workers risking their lives fighting a disease that looks like it will be a part of our world for the next two years at least.

Indoor Market, Malaga.

Shows on TV are now watched with from the perspective of Covid-19. People have the luxury of shaking hands or hugging. People are so close to each other! They can walk into a store 2 at a time! They’re meeting for a drink! That’s a very crowded train!

It’s behind their paywall but my wife has bought the paper on and off for the last few years so I went searching for it today. No sign of it in the two local shops and I wasn’t going to risk going to any more just for a newspaper. We did sign up for the 7 day free trial of their app and I have to admit it looks great. The in-app purchase is easier to cancel than a sub on their website which requires a phone call.

The This Won’t Hurt a Bit podcast is back with two more episodes on Covid-19. Their first episode on March 24th reminded me of the fake cures doing the rounds on Facebook back at the start of March. Drinking warm water to flush any virus from your throat into your stomach to kill it was a favourite but it was oh so stupid.

The price of petrol in my local filling station in Blarney now stands at €1.259/litre. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that low here before. The Blarney station isn’t the cheapest in the area but I haven’t visited anywhere else in almost a month. I’ve been told the price went as low as €1.199 elsewhere in the city.

The last time I filled up was about three weeks ago when I remember using a latex glove to hold the pump handle. I’d normally use sanitiser anyway but it seemed prudent to be extra careful. The price then was €1.299/litre, not far from the price when I started recording my fuel usage in 2010 when it was €1.289/litre!

We’re only allowed travel for necessities like shopping, work or caring for others. There are Garda check points. There were reports of Dublin and UK reg cars in West Cork last week prompting the Taoiseach to ask people not to travel. People are sent home again. There’s hardly any air travel. Dublin airport reported only 900 people passed through the airport on Easter Monday when normally there’d be 100,000.

The fall in price wasn’t due to COVID-19, but that contributed to it. Demand for oil was slowing down already but from my experience the price was still at €1.399/litre in early March, and that was probably at one of the cheaper places. The Russians and Opec were having a price war. Opec wanted to reduce pumping but the Russians ignored them and continued pumping. It seems now there was a deal two days ago so we might see prices jump again.

Restrictions are going to continue until May 5th and of course we all know they’ll go on for longer. A vaccine for general use won’t be available until next year so we’ll have to learn to live with it.

My son plays Minecraft with a friend in Sweden who is still going to school. We’re wondering why since schools here have been closed since March 12th. They think that children aren’t super spreaders so there’s no need to close them.

While other countries, or rather, their inhabitants, struggle with varying levels of lockdown, Sweden has relied on relatively few recommendations to try and prevent the spread of the virus.

Nursing homes have been closed to visitors, higher education has been moved online and there’s a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people.

Authorities have also encouraged people to work from home and to avoid unnecessary journeys.

But primary and secondary schools up to the age of 16 remain open, as do hairdressers and gyms, and restaurants and bars can stay open once they offer table service to avoid crowding at counters and bars.

A large emphasis has been placed on personal responsibility, and anyone with symptoms is asked, and trusted to self-isolate.

But is the strategy working?

As of today, over 1,000 Swedes have died from Covid-19, an increase of 114 deaths on the previous day’s figure and around 11,440 have been infected, out of a population of 10 million.

I went out for a cycle. The roads are much quieter. It was lovely. It almost felt normal because I was well away from the few people walking around. I heard birds singing.

I started writing about what’s happening with Covid-19 on St. Patrick’s Day this year and I said I was writing for future me. While it’s impossible to capture everything I see and experience this post my cousin shared on Facebook (author unknown) covers most of the major events of the last month.

Sharing this for my future self ❤️Schools and Creches close 12th March 2020All pubs and clubs close 15th March.No St Patricks Day ParadeLockdown begins in Ireland midnight 27th March 2020Fuel prices dropped a record amount (now €1.12/litre)Self-distancing measures on a rise.Tape on the floors at food stores and others to help distance shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other.Limited number of people inside stores, therefore lineups outside the store doors.Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.Entire sports seasons cancelled.Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events – cancelled.Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings – cancelled.Funerals limited to children/parents/spouses of deceased. No other family or friends.No masses, churches are closed.No gatherings permitted.Don’t socialize with anyone outside of your home.We are to distance from each other.Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.Shortage of respirators for the critically ill.Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.Shelves are bare.Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.Government closes the border to all non essential travel and makes it mandatory to self isolate for 14 days when returning.Fines are established for breaking the rules.Fines for those price-gauging others.Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.Press conferences daily from the Government.Barely anyone in the street or on the roads.People wearing masks and gloves outside.Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.Medical workers are afraid to go home to their families.Many people placed on leave and unable to work with the government paying 80% of their wage.They say it started in Wuhan, China at a seafood market. Hundreds of thousands affected, dead, dying, critically ill. Many recovered.This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.Why, you ask, do I write this status?One day it will show up in my memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious. To not take the things we dearly love for granted.We have so much!Be thankful. Be grateful.Be kind to each other – love one another – support everyone. ❤️

From Facebook post, author unknown.

Not everything there is accurate and obviously what is, only applies to Ireland. There isn’t a strict 14 day quarantine on people arriving in the country. People are asked to self isolate for that time but there’s no follow-up AFAIK. We’re all self-isolating now anyway.

The PPE that arrived from China turned out to be ill fitting, too small and of poor quality. I hope subsequent shipments were better.

HelloI’m wondering if you’ll post this message. I’m a nurse in one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country.Today I and my colleagues came to work and were supplied with the three quarter sleeve gowns shown on tv to look after Covid patients.We put up a huge battle with our manager who insisted that the gowns offered adequate protection and were standard now countrywide.Infection control just told us to practice our hand hygiene even more thoroughly and wash our arms.We were put in the most awful of dilemmas. Some of us resorted to taping our arms up to the sleeves of the gowns. ( it doesnt work, the tape split and was difficult to remove safely)The rest of us continued to protest until a small supply of proper long sleeve gowns were found. Those who protested more loudly were given the gowns. Those who were afraid of overpowering management relented and had to wear the short sleeve gowns.Today was a fucking nightmare.The very managers marching us into covid positive rooms will never have direct patient care.We know they wouldn’t dare put themselves at risk but it’s ok to put our lives and our families lives at risk.Senior consultants are protesting over poor quality PPEs and the use of surical masks with Covid patients but even their voices go unheard over the suits in management who have business degrees but who have absolutley no qualifications in looking after patients or in infectious diseases.I’m telling you this because the truth needs to be told. Jesus I thought we were at rock bottom before but never more so than we are now.We are forced to wash goggles after each use. (Not enough to go around.) We are told that surgical masks are fine even when pts are coughing terribly and are on nebulisers. (Not enough FFP3s in supply)And now we are given gowns that either have no sleeves in them or we have the option of plastic gowns that only cover the front of our bodies. Our upper chest area and backs are completely open.Every nurse, doctor and healthcare worker who provide direct care to covid pts in Ireland is terrified right now. The stress alone is killing us.We all have families to go home to.We are all aware of the now high level of covid positive staff in our hospital and yet they continue to force us into wards and rooms without adequate protection therefore risking our lives and the lives of our loved ones.What infuriated all of us even more this evening was the director general of the HSE, Paul Reid stating that the PPE’s “just look different”.The fucking neck of the man. Who does he think he’s fooling?Would you send a riot policeman into a riot wearing a straw hat and tell them it just looks different?It’s an insult to all our intelligence and it’s placing a huge amount of lack of trust in management at a time when we should feel confident that they’ll keep us safe.Some of us are now in tears in work. All of us are petrified. None of us are sleeping well. We are all willing to care for Covid patients, that’s our job but for the love of God provide us with the equipment to do so. Don’t let any of us risk lose our lives doing so.We may be considered angels but we are all highly qualified medical staff with families who we love dearly and we are being forced to do the unthinkable.The rest of the worlds healthcare workers wear hazmat suits with covid patients . We don’t have that luxury but for Christs sake please please don’t let them take chances with our lives by forcing us to wear shoddy PPE’s.We are all worth so much more than that even if they don’t think so.Thank yo for letting us tell the real truth.

An incredibly stressed nurse on behalf of all my incredibly stressed colleagues on the frontline.(Ps I aplogise for my use of bad language.)

Sick people will be advised by their doctor when to use a mask. Healthcare workers need masks and other personal protective equipment to protect them from infection during their work.

On the other hand you can be infectious for several days without symptoms so wearing some sort of mask that stops you breathing or coughing particles in an enclosed space like a grocery store might be worth it.

Throwing in a “I hook up with models” joke in the middle of a press conference involving hundreds of thousands of people dying, and blaming people who collect data, is a different type of leadership. pic.twitter.com/8htZN7OxNE

What kind of monster makes a lewd joke while talking about the projected deaths of thousands of people?

Tom Gunn is 82 years of age. He served in the Congo with the Irish Army & survived the Siege Of Jadotville. And now he’s survived #COVID19 After two weeks in hospital he’s back home with his family. Tom is one of my guests on #NewstalkBreakfast in the morning. On air from 8am 📻 pic.twitter.com/9KvV1VL82d

A month is a long time, an advert on the February 27th Naked Scientists podcast was run by the Local Enterprise Office here in Ireland for “Local Enterprise Week” at the beginning of March to “help local business grow in 2020”. I wonder will people become wary of meeting others after this pandemic is over? I’m slowly catching up on my podcast backlog. Many are being recorded at home or even on a park bench as happened with the March 16th episode of Planet Money.

Schools in Ireland closed on March 12th, so we’ve been at home since then. New restrictions were introduced on March 27th, as summarised by Gavin Sheridan:

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has announced:

1. For two weeks, to April 12, everyone to stay at home in all circumstances (except essential services, shopping, medicines, care for relatives, brief exercise) 2. All public and private gatherings of any number of people banned.3. All non-essential shops closed. 4. All community centres closed.5. Shielding introduced to all over 70s.6. All visits to offshore islands banned. 7. No travel outside of 2km of your home (except reasons above), for any reason.

It has made a noticeable difference. I haven’t left Blarney since then. Even before that I had curtailed how much I walk but now it’s a quick walk around the park with the dog in the morning and evening. Pokemon Go gyms have been relatively stable. There’s one by the River Martin that hadn’t been attacked for over 100 days until mid-March but because more people were staying “close by” they were walking down there. That has stopped now and the gym hasn’t been touched in 7 days.

Google Fit knows I’m not going anywhere

Blarney Woollen Mills is blocked off, but you could still get in to the grounds there if you hopped over a low wall. One of the gyms in there remains untouched after 15 days!

Blarney Castle Garden was open until a few days ago, but the new restrictions closed them.

Dave Bolger created a site called 2kmfromhome.com where you can find out how far you can exercise. Simply launch it on your phone and allow it access to your location. It will then display a map around you with a circle where you can go.

Work on the construction site across the road from my home has ground to a halt which we’re grateful for. The road outside is still clogged with dust and of course they never clean it up properly.

PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, is a phrase that has entered everyday language. Every country has shortages of it but Aer Lingus are flying to China to pick up PPE worth millions of Euro.

If I remember correctly the Government expects to buy €225 million of it over the next months. Unfortunately the latest flight had to return and make an emergency landing after a bird strike.

People are queuing outside shops because the stores have limited how many people are allowed in at one time. Going shopping is stressful. People jump back from you if you get too close. This thread on Reddit compares it to a survival game.

Last Week Tonight was filmed at home. Other American talk shows are too. Ryan Tubridy presented a couple of episodes of The Late Late Show without a studio audience but a few days ago it was reported he had tested positive for Covid-19. Miriam O’Callaghan took over last week’s show. Irish radio shows are being recorded at home. My wife rang the bank this morning. The woman she spoke to is working from home and thought it was weird. She’ll get used to it.

Chris Hadfield offered advice for people staying at home

In a sure sign that people are getting used to this new normal some on Twitter were worried that bots were congratulating and supporting the government on everything they do. I somehow doubt that’s happening and others have pointed out that it’s really hard to get a Twitter username without trailing numbers unless you come up with something unusual. I bet there are a whole lot of new Twitter users now looking for the latest news.

Even Twitter’s bots and sock puppets are putting on the green jersey to support the government.

Read the 20+ supportive comments beneath this and then note their join date, followers, handles with numbers etc. https://t.co/3PMqcDkZNL

I saw on Twitter this morning that a 13 year old boy died of Covid-19 in London. Heartbreaking. 🙁

If you have a few minutes write a letter to Andrew McGinley. In January he found his 3 children dead in the family home. His wife was found nearby and has been charged with their murders. Andrew is feeling the effects of isolation.

I’m looking for a favour. I’m struggling with isolation like you all but really missing the company. I was also enjoying most of the letters that I received so I have a request. Can you write to me? If you feel like using one of your An Post postcards then great. Letters welcome. pic.twitter.com/V72gLbGbtC

I was going to write a post featuring that image because Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced yesterday that everyone in the Republic of Ireland must stay at home with very few exceptions in an attempt to stop COVID-19. There’s an increased Garda presence with motorists likely to be stopped and asked where they’re going. Exercise must be taken within 2km of home.

The image used in the meme above isn’t great. Every time I saw it the floor plan was blurry while the text was pin sharp so I wanted to know if there’s a better version available.

That image is a paltry 360×360 pixel image, without the headline text. It seems at least two different people created memes out of that tiny image and it went viral!

There’s a global pandemic in multiple countries and people are creating memes. This letter from Italy is right.

You’ll laugh. You’ll laugh a lot. You’ll flaunt a gallows humour you never had before. Even people who’ve always taken everything dead seriously will contemplate the absurdity of life, of the universe and of it all.

Edit a bit later: Gardai are stopping traffic as seen in this video. They’re talking to the driver through the passenger window. Via this tweet.

The most recent episode of the Reply-All podcast was a call-in show. It’s also the second of their shows recorded since the COVID-19 pandemic started and both presenters are recording from their own homes.

One of the callers was Zorro, calling from Paris. He’s living with his girlfriend and parents and they’re in lockdown. Nobody is allowed out except in certain circumstances and one of those is to walk the dog.

Apparently dogs are getting plenty of walking these days. They’re very popular! 🙂

The next few weeks are going to be absolutely awful for Ireland. Of course we’re not prepared. The HSE is doing everything they can but they’ve been underfunded for many years. This is what it’s like in Italy right now. If you’re not scared you should be.

There was a short interview with Dr Catherine Motherway, Intensive care physician at UH Limerick on Prime Time yesterday. It’s an important reminder about how under resourced the health services are in this country.

A few weeks ago I was. Just thinking about it now fills me with dread. I think the last time I was in a crowded room was at the last Blarney Photography Club meeting and that’s when I first heard that a case of COVID19 was reported in Cork. Following an excellent presentation by Ann Francis of Cork Camera Club, Fergal came into the room and told us that someone suffering with COVID19 was in Cork University Hospital (CUH). It does not seem like just a week ago. We were reminded not to shake hands and avoid physical contact.

I’ve barely walked anywhere this week. Out with the dog in the morning for a quick walk around the park, and the same last thing at night.

The numbers shown in spreadsheets like the one Gavin Sheridan shared today are scary. This one presumes growth of 33% per day to April 3 in the US, UK and Ireland.

The Taoiseach mentioned 15,000 cases by the end of the month. That’s where this number came from. As Gavin said, numbers now are already locked in but if we stay apart we can play our part in slowing the spread of the virus.

From my home office at the back of the house I heard a yell from the front. Curious, I looked out a window and saw four boys who couldn’t be more than 12 years old talking and bouncing a ball on a hurley as they unhurriedly walked down the middle of the road. Too close lads, too close..

Ireland doesn’t have enough ICU beds. “Once you come to the ICU one in five patients in my intensive care unit lose their lives”

I’m slowly getting used to the stress of living this way. I stayed off Twitter and Facebook more today. Any cough or sneeze is cause for alarm but the other bugs are still floating around. My wife is great, my son is obsessed with gaming and can play with his friends in virtual worlds online but it’s taking it’s toll on us. I’m looking forward to going for a drive somewhere by the sea tomorrow, hopefully where there won’t be anyone else.

The Golden Compass
First of a three part fantasy/sci-fi series. Some people hate it because of it's anti God message but it's a great read. I found it hard to put down. There's even a Snopes article about the film adaptation.

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